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788328

	registered interest
	date	13/11/2017
	answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
	answering dept id	92
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Select Committee Reports
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Leader of the House whether she has plans to ensure that Government departments (1) abide by their undertaking to provide responses to the reports of select committees within two months of publication, and (2) reply fully to the recommendations set out in those reports.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL3120
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/11/2017 answer text <p>I have recently written to Lords ministers to reiterate the importance of providing timely responses to select committee reports and I am assured that ministers are working hard to ensure the Government respond to reports within two months of their publication. However, sometimes circumstances dictate that it will not be possible to provide a response within this timeframe. Sometimes a later timeframe is agreed with the committee in question when it may be possible to give a fuller response at a later point. In such instances the relevant government department will maintain contact with the relevant select committee chairman and secretariat.</p><p>The Government values the work of the select committees of this House, and understands the importance of proper engagement with them. The House has the opportunity to consider Government responses alongside the report at the point at which it is debated and I recognise the importance of having sufficient time to consider it beforehand. This is an important way that the House holds Government to account for the quality and timeliness of the response.</p> answering member printed Baroness Evans of Bowes Park question first answered 22/11/2017 12:13:59 answering member 4329 label Biography information for Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

143445

	registered interest
	date	07/11/2014
	answering body	Leader of the House of Lords
	answering dept id	92
	answering dept short name
	answering dept sort name	Leader of the House of Lords
	hansard heading	House of Lords: Select Committee Reports
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask the Leader of the House how many times in the last 10 years no Government response to a Lords Select Committee report was forthcoming eight months or longer after the report’s publication; and what were the subjects of the report or reports in question.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL2730
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/11/2014 answer text <p>This information is not held centrally; it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Stowell of Beeston question first answered 21/11/2014 14:44:34 answering member 4205 label Biography information for Baroness Stowell of Beeston
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

646617

	registered interest
	date	28/11/2016
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Housing: Construction
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth on 24 November (HL Deb, col 2050), on what evidence the statement that "we are building more houses than ever before" was based.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL3635
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/12/2016 answer text <p>The government’s policies mean that we have delivered nearly 900,000 new homes in England since 2010 and private new build housing starts are at their highest financial year level since 2007/08. Our planning reforms also mean that major planning applications determined on time are at the highest percentage on record. However, we acknowledge that we have not been building enough homes in England for decades and that we have more to do. The Autumn Statement set out £5.3 billion of investment to build more homes. We will set out a further comprehensive package of reform to boost housing supply and halt the decline in housing affordability in a Housing White Paper to be published in January.</p> answering member printed Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth question first answered 15/12/2016 14:42:32 answering member 4282 label Biography information for Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

222766

	registered interest
	date	23/02/2015
	answering body	Department for Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Local Government
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support and champion England’s traditional counties.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL5107
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/03/2015 answer text <p>England’s traditional counties date back over a thousand years of English history, but many of the counties have been sidelined by Whitehall in recent decades, whether by the bland municipal restructuring of Edward Heath’s Government in 1972, or by the imposition of artificial regional structures by the last Labour Government based on the EU’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (the appropriately-named “NUTS” Regulations).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Yet the tapestry of England’s counties binds our nation together, and is interwoven with our cultural fabric – from our cricket to our ales. So this Government has taken a series of steps to champion our traditional counties:</p><p> </p><p>• We have amended planning regulations to allow local and county flags to be flown without planning permission, and published a plain English guide to flying flags. Previously, flying a county flag on an existing flag pole required a princely sum of £335 to be paid to the council.</p><p>• We have supported the Flag Institute in publishing a new guide for would-be vexillologists to encourage a new wave of county and other local flags to be designed and flown. http://www.flaginstitute.org/wp/british-flags/creating-local-and-community-flags/</p><p>• My Department has flown a range of county flags in Whitehall to mark different county days, including Cumberland, Huntingdonshire, Westmorland and Middlesex. We have also flown flags to celebrate other historic localities such as those of the Ridings of Yorkshire and of Wessex – the kingdom which gave birth to the united English nation.</p><p>• We are changing highways regulations to allow traditional county names to appear on boundary road signs. The previous rules prevented unitary councils like Blackpool from having a road sign saying ‘Lancashire’, or Poole saying ‘Dorset’ – since they were not considered to be part of the ‘administrative county’.</p><p>• We have a new online interactive map of England’s different county boundaries. http://communities.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Compare/storytelling_compare/index.html?appid=7b0e661ef66b4a7aacb5a9acf55108ac</p><p>• Ordnance Survey, the Government’s National Mapping Agency, now provides a dataset of current, ceremonial counties (counties retained for the purposes of representing Her Majesty by Lord Lieutenants and High Sheriffs). http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/help-and-support/products/boundary-line.html</p><p>• I can also announce to the House today that from May a dataset of the traditional, historic counties based on 19th Century boundaries will be available on the OS OpenData portal. These datasets are compatible with the OS Boundary-Line product which is available to all free of charge. Ordnance Survey is also going to provide a viewing map window on their website showing both the historic and ceremonial County boundaries on top of a base map.</p><p>• Later in the year, Ordnance Survey is hoping to publish a paper map of the Historic Counties of England, Scotland and Wales (as defined in the Local Government Act 1888 for England and Wales and the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889 for Scotland), which will be available to the general public to purchase and proudly display.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>We are stronger as a nation when we cherish and champion our local and traditional ties. This Government is proud to wave the flag of St George and Union flag alongside our county flags. Whatever one’s class, colour or creed, we should have pride in our English identity within the United Kingdom’s Union that binds us all together.</p> answering member printed Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon question first answered 10/03/2015 15:07:14 answering member 4210 label Biography information for Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

934495

	registered interest
	date	03/07/2018
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Bookshops: Non-domestic Rates
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to introduce a business rates relief scheme for bookshops analogous to that provided for public houses.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL9176
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 17/07/2018 answer text <p>The Government has introduced a range of business rates reforms and measures to support businesses, including bookshops, worth over £10 billion by 2023. This includes, from April 2017, permanently doubling Small Business Rate Relief and raising the threshold for relief meaning that over 600,000 small businesses now pay no business rates at all, and helping all business by switching the measure of inflation, used for the indexation of rates, from Retail Price Index to Consumer Price Index.</p> answering member printed Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth question first answered 17/07/2018 16:40:52 answering member 4282 label Biography information for Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

348849

	registered interest
	date	08/06/2015
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Languages: Qualifications
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the written answer by Lord Nash on 4 June (HL94), when they expect Ofqual's work with awarding organisations on the future of the relevant community languages to be completed and a decision to be taken on whether to launch a consultation.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL328
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/06/2015 answer text <p>The Department for Education, Ofqual and awarding organisations continue to consider and discuss potential approaches to securing these qualifications. The government is keen to ensure reformed qualifications in community languages will be available for first teaching in 2017. If no course of action can be agreed by Ofqual and awarding organisations the department will consult more widely on potential approaches and seek to ensure this timeline is adhered to.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 18/06/2015 15:13:55 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

679317

	registered interest
	date	26/01/2017
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	School Milk
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answers by Lord Nash on 25 January (HL Deb, cols 662–3), what guidance has been provided to primary and secondary schools to ensure compliance with the milk requirements of the standards for school food in England, published on 9 September 2016; and how schools are required to demonstrate that they have complied with those requirements.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL5031
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2017 answer text <p>Departmental advice on the School Food Standards, which includes the requirements for milk, is attached and available on Gov.uk. A summary of the standards and a practical guide are available from the School Food Plan website.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Governing boards are legally responsible for meeting t</strong>he School Food Standards.</p><p>From previous surveys of compliance against the previous standards, we are confident that almost all schools are following the new standards appropriately.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 10/02/2017 14:24:05 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash attachment 1 file name School_food_in_England.pdf title School_Food_in_England
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

174841

	registered interest
	date	20/01/2015
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Armed Forces: Cadets
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have plans to encourage more maintained schools to work with independent schools in establishing new cadet units.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL4268
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2015 answer text <p>Many of our most respected independent schools and some state schools have for over 100 years looked to military themed activities to give their pupils a sense of discipline, adventure and achievement.</p><p> </p><p>Partnership with an existing cadet unit provides many benefits to state funded schools wanting to set up new units under our Cadet Expansion Programme. Partnership helps to share good practice and transfer skills, especially into schools with no prior military experience. There are many established independent school cadet units willing to partner with state schools.</p><p> </p><p>To date 23 of the 65 schools approved to establish a cadet unit under the Cadet Expansion Programme are benefiting from such a partnership. While we strongly encourage partnership to help schools establish a new unit, we also encourage them to develop their aspirations to establish a stand-alone unit that is able to deliver the cadet experience to many more of their pupils.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 23/01/2015 13:59:16 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

607604

	registered interest
	date	21/10/2016
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Schools: Playing Fields
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether sales of school playing fields are increasing; and if so, whether they will take steps to curb such sales.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL2536
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/11/2016 answer text <p>Local authorities and schools must by law seek consent from the Secretary of State to dispose of playing field land. The department has a strong policy presumption against the disposal of school playing fields and only provides consent to dispose of playing field land if the criteria set out in the departmental guidance are met; which includes an expectation that proceeds from sales are reinvested in sports and education facilities. The department publishes a list of department decisions on applications for consent to dispose of school playing field land.</p><p>It would neither be practical or desirable to artificially curb the sale of school playing fields, when such disposals may represent the most effective use of public assets. Often changes are made to education provision, such as school closures or mergers, which mean it is no longer necessary to retain playing fields for school use. In such cases it is only right that local communities are able to benefit from space that otherwise would not be used. Converting surplus or unwanted assets to invest in school grounds has benefits that extend far beyond the school gates. No operating school has disposed of its entire playing field.</p><p>It is therefore right that schools should continue to determine what is suitable for their individual circumstances; subject to strong statutory protections including the Secretary of State’s consent and the application of rigorous criteria for what is best for pupils’ education and wider school and community life.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash grouped question UIN HL2535 question first answered 01/11/2016 16:02:25 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden

662668

	registered interest
	date	20/12/2016
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	English Baccalaureate
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to announce the results of their consultation on the English Baccalaureate which closed in January.
	tabling member printed	Lord Lexden
	uin	HL4275
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/01/2017 answer text <p>We will publish the Government response to the consultation on the implementation of the English Baccalaureate policy in due course.</p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 11/01/2017 15:00:51 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4202 label Biography information for Lord Lexden